Even before winning national championships — even before making its first NCAA tournament — the University of Maine men’s ice hockey team has had something special. Since the inaugural season of the program in 1977, the Black Bears have been playing in front of the raucous, loyal fans at the one and only Alfond Arena.

The fans that pack the Alfond night in and night out have been known to be so loud and boisterous as to intimidate the opposing team. Defenseman Scott Smith, who played in 131 games for the Black Bears from 1982-86, loved playing in front of those hockey fanatics because of how loud it got and how close the fans were to the ice.

“The student section was basically so loud that players could not hear whistles, and the opposing goalies hated playing there,” Smith said.

Goaltender King played pivotal role in UMaine’s ascension to elite program status

It was Nov. 1, 1986. A freshman goalie from Kamloops, British Columbia, was playing in his first Hockey East road game for the University of Maine.

Scott King beat Boston University 7-5 at Walter Brown Arena that night, but his performance was befuddling.

“The five goals came on three shots from the blue line and two from center ice. I didn’t give up any on shots from inside the top of the (faceoff) circles. I stopped everything else,” recalled King, who is now an orthopedic surgeon.

‘A great lesson for all of us’: Two-year NCAA ban helped make ’99 title run sweeter for Steve Kariya, UMaine hockey teammates

...Due to NCAA violations, the Black Bears were prohibited from playing in the NCAA tournament his first two seasons.

“When I signed on with Maine, one of the many reasons I did was to try to compete for a national title,” said Kariya. “To be on one of the top teams in the country and to have that taken away from me and my teammates was difficult. Those two teams were pretty good teams, especially my sophomore year when (suspended head coach Shawn Walsh) came back and we ran over everyone including Boston University.”

Walsh returned from his one-year suspension at the halfway mark of the 1996-1997 season, relieving assistant/interim head coach Greg Cronin, and the Black Bears went 15-3 down the stretch including a sweep of BU, which went on to play in the NCAA championship game.

UMaine went 26-9-4 during Kariya’s freshman season and 24-10-1 his sophomore year.